The present invention relates to a display device for reading an IC card and displaying a readout.
When one does his or her shopping using, for example, an IC card in which data representing an amount prepaid (hereinafter referred to as electronic money) are stored, the electronic money equivalent to an amount of a purchase is to be drawn out from the IC card. In such a case, however, a bearer of the IC card needs to check an amount of the balance left in the IC card. Accordingly, the bearer of the IC card had to check the amount of the balance left in the IC card in the past by mounting the IC card in the display device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,011, and in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei 08-077304 so that the display device can read out and display data on the balance stored in the IC card.
Since the conventional display device described above is required to be as small as possible in size from the viewpoint of portability, it has been desired that movable components such as a keyboard, and the like are omitted wherever possible.
Accordingly, in the conventional display device, functions other than a function for giving a readout of the balance in the IC card, including, for example, a function for displaying historical transaction data, that is, a function for checking whether or not the correct amount of a purchase has been drawn out when payment is made after shopping at a store, and a function for setting a password, are eliminated, leading to the elimination of the keyboard for selecting these functions. With the conventional display device described above without the benefits of the function for displaying the historical transaction data, the bearer of an IC card had to calculate an amount of electronic money to be transferred, corresponding to the price of a purchase made, by checking the balance in the IC card both before and after the transfer. As a result, the bearer of IC cards has found the conventional display device inconvenient for him to use.
The present invention has adopted the following constitution in order to solve the aforesaid problem.
A display device according to the invention comprises a card detection sensor for detecting mounting and removal of an IC card, and a controller for reading out data on the balance in the IC card and historical transaction data from the IC card as soon as the card detection sensor detects mounting of the IC card, and for displaying the respective data alternately on a display window.
The display device for the IC card constituted as described above is capable of detecting the mounting of the IC card by means of the card detection sensor as soon as the IC card is mounted in the display device, and of displaying alternately on the display window the data on the balance and the historical transaction data, which are read out from the IC card by means of the controller.